


Burn The World

by LadyBrooke



Category: The Silmarillion and other histories of Middle-Earth - J. R. R. Tolkien
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-04-08
Updated: 2017-04-08
Packaged: 2018-10-16 10:18:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 506
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/10569282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LadyBrooke/pseuds/LadyBrooke
Summary: The siege was never going to be worth it, if it meant Fingon's death. Maglor knows his brother will let nothing stop him from their oaths now.





	

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Taming the Muse on Dreamwidth, prompt Siege. 
> 
> Can be read as either Maedhros/Fingon or friendship.

Even if the siege had been successful, Maglor thought that it would never have been worth it, if it meant Fingon’s death.

Maedhros was broken now, far beyond anything he had ever been before. To be sure, he didn’t appear broken to the others, who saw only what Maedhros wanted them to. People forgot that Maedhros had been the one to keep the peace in Valinor for as long as he could, that Maedhros – like Fingon – had mastered the art of smiles that were false but appeared true, because what else could the eldest sons of feuding princes do? That’s what had bound Fingon and Maedhros together at first, their shared ability to fake smiles and therefore realize when somebody else was doing the same.

But Fingon was dead now, and Maedhros was without his foil, the only one for years who had always been able to get a real smile from him.

And this was going to break their family far more than even their father’s betrayal of Fingolfin and his people, or the previous deaths, or anything else could ever have done.

Because Maedhros wasn’t nice, whatever everyone else thought. He was cautious and hesitant to act, traits born of having to fix the hasty mistakes of others, but he wasn’t nice. He was kind to those who deserved it, and polite to everyone around him, but Maedhros was as much one of the princes of the Noldor as any of them, and that bred nothing but paranoia and a healthy distrust of niceness.

Even Finrod, for all of his niceness, had been somewhat cutthroat when situations called for it, and Maedhros wasn’t one of Finarfin’s sons, raised in the house of the Teleri. He was raised in Tirion, biting and scraping for every alliance that he could get, and underscoring those he couldn’t.

Fingon had softened him, and Maedhros had softened Fingon. Maglor thought they were each other’s biggest weakness, because they were the only ones the other couldn’t be strict with. Maedhros was willing to put his siblings in their places, and Fingon had chosen Maedhros over his own siblings’ feelings.

And Fingon was dead, and the siege was broken, and the world seemed to be ending around them, but they would be the ones to remain.

Maedhros was bitter, snapping at any of his brothers who came near. Maglor had banned his younger siblings from doing so, preferring to take it all on himself. Celegorm and Caranthir were old enough to remember Maedhros before he had learned to completely control his temper, but Curufin and the twins were so easily startled by Maedhros’ moods.

They would flee to the wildnerness. Turgon was king now, and they would have naught to do with him. Orodreth and Thingol wouldn’t welcome them either.

And Maglor was glad for that, because if they had thought Maedhros a masterful strategist with Fingon alive, they forgot that with Fingon dead, Maedhros would burn the world to fulfill their oaths, because there was no danger to Fingon anymore.


End file.
